Unite has said it plans to go ahead with the strike from October 28 unless management comes to them with revised proposals in their pay dispute.

Residents throughout the Stirling area face a fortnight without their bins being collected with council workers on the brink of strike action.

Refuse workers at Stirling Council are set to stage a two week walkout from Monday, October 28, as the long-running pay dispute continues.

Council bosses have called for unions to meet them and staff to allow both sides to set out their cases and to ensure that staff know what is on offer to them.

Unite has said it plans to go ahead with the strike unless management comes to them with revised proposals.

Letters were being sent out to every household in the area yesterday (Tuesday), informing residents that no grey bins will be picked up from October 28-November 8.

Householders are being advised not to put their bins out, however they will be able to put a maximum of two black bags out on their collection day if their wheelie bins are full. A different waste disposal vehicle will be used to collect black bags.

Recycling and food waste collections are set to continue as normal and one further brown bin collection is scheduled for later in November.

The council has urged Unite to abandon plans for the strike, to avoid services being hit and workers losing out.

Chief executive Bob Jack, who has held meetings with refuse staff over the past week, said talks are needed to clarify to employees what the council’s offer is.

“Some workers are losing £91 per week in overtime because of the union ban,” he said. “Workers will also lose an average of £600 as a result of the two week strike.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, as they are losing this money as opposed to an average loss of £120 a year (if they accept the offer).”

However unions believe that the changes amount to a 4.5 per cent cut for staff, and that workers will be working more for less.

Unite has said that workers have shown their anger by voting to strike and that members want the council to come back with a meaningful offer.

The council has also highlighted that the decision to strike is based on a ballot held several months ago, and that new proposals offered earlier this month had not been on the table when members voted.

On October 2, management proposed that if the offer of a 1.5 per cent pay cut and an extra hour’s work was accepted then no compulsory redundancies would be made during 2014/15, no further changes will be made to terms and conditions until 2017 and the pay reduction will be restored to 0.5 per cent in 2015/16.

However the union has said that terms put forward are the “same old tired proposals” and do not change workers’ decision to strike.

A Unite spokesman said: “Unless the council is willing to remove its offer of working more for less and brings staff into line with what has been offered by COSLA (a one per cent increase for council staff) then we will be taking action.”

Council leader Councillor Johanna Boyd said that it is critical that staff accept the offer as the alternatives to help make savings of £24m over three years could mean up to 120 jobs being cut or drastic service cuts.

She said: “To be absolutely clear, the council is losing 100 members of staff through voluntary redundancies. These are members of staff that have agreed to leave the organisation. We cannot afford to lose any more.”

In a further blow to the council, UNISON parking attendants announced they are set to hold a strike from Friday, October 25 until Thursday, October 31 as part of ongoing indus- trial action.